Adeptus Astartes
"They shall be my finest warriors, these men who give of themselves to me. Like clay I shall mould them and in the furnace of war I shall forge them. They shall be of iron will and steely sinew. In great armour I shall clad them and with the mightiest weapons shall they be armed. They will be untouched by plague or disease; no sickness shall blight them. They shall have such tactics, strategies and machines that no foe will best them in battle. They are my bulwark against the Terror. They are the Defenders of Humanity. They are my Space Marines ...and they shall know no fear." — The Emperor of Mankind The Space Marines or Adeptus Astartes are foremost amongst the defenders of humanity, the greatest of the Emperor of Mankind's warriors. They are barely human at all, but superhuman; having been made superior in all respects to a normal man by a harsh regime of genetic modification, psycho-conditioning and rigorous training. Space Marines are untouched by plague or any natural disease and can suffer wounds that would kill a lesser being several times over, and live to fight again. Clad in ancient Power Armour and wielding the most potent weapons known to Man, the Space Marines are terrifying foes and their devotion to the Emperor and the Imperium of Man is unyielding. History: The Space Marines are the Imperium of Man’s supreme warriors. Genetically-enhanced to be the ultimate soldiers of Mankind, they are far stronger and more resilient than ordinary human beings. Space Marines are organised into eighteen legions, with each Legion numbering approximately 100000 warriors organised into a hundred chapters of 1000 troops each. Each Legion is a self-sufficient Imperial army, equipped with its own spacecraft and capable of responding at a moment’s notice to any threat to the security of the Imperium. Every Legion is fiercely proud of its history and achievements, and each one has its own distinctive colours and heraldic markings. These were established at the Legion’s Founding and are displayed with pride upon all of its armour and vehicles. All of the wargear of the Space Marines is painstakingly maintained, and many items are covered in lines of intricately rendered devotional script in High Gothic, each line detailing a battle honour won in a glorious campaign. A Space Marine is a towering warrior, his brute strength tempered by inhuman skill. He is armed with the fearsome Bolter, a blessed weapon that fires devastating, mass-reactive shells that explode within the flesh of the target. He is protected by a suit of Power Armour, shielding him from the fiercest of enemy fire whilst simultaneously strengthening his blows and allowing him to survive the most hostile of environments. He is the product of intensive training and genetic manipulation, which transforms mortal men selected from the deadliest warrior races in the known galaxy into the most lethal of superhuman killing machines in Mankind's arsenal. The Space Marines can trace their origins back to the Unification Wars on Terra in the late 30th Millennium, when the Emperor of Mankind first revealed his existence and lead regiments of deadly genetically-engineered soldiers known as Thunder Warriors in a great campaign to unite all of the myriad techno-barbarian tribes and nation-states of Terra under his rule. From the outset of his retaking of Terra, the Emperor employed genetically modified warriors within his forces and in these early enhanced troops lay the origins of what would later become the Space Marine Legions. During the Age of Strife, known as "Old Night" on Terra, the cradle of Mankind had seen more than its fair share of augments and "super" soldiers created both from bio-alchemy and cybernetic augmentation. But it was the Emperor's own Thunder Warriors, named for the early thunderbolt and raptor's head heraldry used by their master in the Imperium's earliest days, that were to prove superior to all of them. These superhuman warriors were a gestalt mix of unprecedented superhuman physical power, gene-programmed resistance to environmental and even psychic attack, a warlike spirit and the Emperor's own strategic genius. The Thunder Regiments were an army unlike any that had come before them, and the forces of the powerful tyrants of Old Earth had nothing to match them. This Unification of humanity's homeworld marked the beginning of the Imperium of Man and the Emperor's quest to reunite all of humanity under a single interstellar government. This quest was intended to prevent his race's extinction from the growing threats which confronted the human-settled galaxy in the wake of the Age of Strife. But despite their many early victories in the Unification Wars, the Thunder Warriors were far from perfect. Some were mentally unstable, others suffered catastrophic biological failure after an unprecedented span of years as their own superhuman physiques turning against them in the end. It seems obvious in retrospect that the Emperor knew early on that a more permanent and stable force of enhanced warriors was needed, so even while the Thunder Warriors waged war in their early days the Emperor gathered about him a team of savants and gene-wrights, some willing and others as captives taken from his foes, and constructed new genetics laboratories deep in the vast dungeons of his Terran fortress beneath the Himalazian (Himalayan) Mountains. Labour there went on for decades in absolute secrecy and resulted in the creation of the Primarchs and other wonders of gene-craft known and unknown. Foremost amongst these were the Space Marine Legions, the Legiones Astartes. Into their creation went all the secret history and genetic lore of the Age of Strife, hard wisdom gained through the success and failure of the Thunder Warriors and the Emperor's own inimitable genius. The first among the Space Marines were hand-picked men drawn from the Emperor's personal bodyguard. These volunteers were subjected to surgical, genetic and psychological modification. With rigorous training and appropriate mental conditioning they became not only immensely strong and tough, but iron-willed and disciplined, an unstoppable force whose loyalty to the Emperor was unflinching. Quickly the process was refined and systematised, and the numbers of the new enhanced warriors, at first armed and armoured as the Thunder Warriors had been, grew swiftly. The first Astartes were organised into twenty distinct regiments numbering no more than a few hundred warriors each. Although it remained a dire secret at the time, it is now widely believed that this division was more than a merely administrative one, as each regiment contained variant "gene-seed" encoding drawn from a different primogenitor Primarch. This often manifested its influence in subtle and unexpected ways, not least of all in influencing the psychological character of the genetically enhanced warriors. With the regiments expanding rapidly into full Legions with the intake of new blood from the areas of Terra that had already joined cause with the Emperor, the new warriors quickly eclipsed and replaced the mighty but far less disciplined and unstable Thunder Warriors. As the Space Marine Legions were unleashed in the latter days of the Unification Wars, victory followed victory in quick succession. As time went on, the Space Marine regiments became Legions as the Emperor recruited men from amongst the newly conquered tribes of Old Earth and the hundreds of Astartes in service to the Imperium swiftly became tens of thousands. These superhuman troops dominated the Wars of Unification, easily defeating all their Terran opponents and forcing the Tech-priests of Mars who had intervened in the conflict on Terra to sue for peace. The Space Marines fought with righteous zeal and it was they who first referred to their mission as a "Crusade." By their efforts, for the first time in unrecorded millennia, the Earth was united under the rule of one man. The armour they wore was not new, but the same partially powered armour that had evolved on Old Earth and was worn by the elite of both the Emperor's armies and the techno-barbarian tribes that had fought against him. Some of this "Thunder Armour," first named for the Thunder Regiments that were the Legions' forebears, was newly forged, but the Emperor's warsmiths also took or cannibalised many suits from the armouries and corpses of conquered foes. As if to mark a break from the wars of the past, the armour of the first Astartes was cast in storm cloud grey, and bore only the thunderbolt and lightning marks of Imperial Unity. Over time, the Space Marine Legions gained their own marks of distinction and character. Names, Emperor-given in some cases, others by the Primarchs, came to replace the Legions' original numbers, with many Space Marines companies seeking to single themselves out from their brother Legions. Battle honours were accumulated and the effect of each Legion's character worked upon them, so that as the Legions expanded to conquer the galaxy, storm cloud grey became granite, silver, viridian, sable, gold, ocean, ash or ice, and by the time of the Triumph of Ullanor, the "Grey Legions" of the Unity era were gone, lost to history. In those days, the Emperor first created the Primarchs, 20 immortal superhumans blessed with extraordinary intelligence, charisma and sheer physical might who were to be his generals and closest comrades during the Great Crusade to reunite the scattered and long-isolated human colony worlds after the end of the Age of Strife. The Primarchs wielded powers the like of which are not known in the Imperium today, yet they were lost to the Warp in an accident deep within the Emperor's gene-laboratories beneath the fortress that would become the Imperial Palace and were scattered, still in their gestation capsules, to worlds across the galaxy by the will of the Dark Gods of Chaos. The first Space Marines of the nascent Imperium were also the creation of that era, each made using the genetic inheritance of one of the Primarchs, albeit diluted a hundred times, for no merely human body could contain such power. As each of the Primarchs were encountered in turn by Imperial Expeditionary Fleets during the progress of the Great Crusade, they became the natural and obvious leader of the Space Marine Legion created from their genetic material and with whom they had so much in common. In many cases the Primarch's adopted world became the new base of operations for their Legion and was known henceforth as that Legion's homeworld. The Primarchs then recruited their loyal followers from each of these world's peoples into the ranks of their Legion while others were given rights to draw fresh blood from suitable warlike worlds that were liberated as the Great Crusade progressed. With the re-discovery of the Primarchs and in many cases newly adopted homeworlds used as Legion fiefs (most commonly the worlds upon which a Legion's new master had been found), this was to change the character of the Legions profoundly. Some alterations were superficial: a habit of speech, a change in close-quarter tactics, martial traditions and warranted additions to iconography and even language. But for others the change would prove dramatic, with entire paradigms of culture, tradition and even ideology overwriting what had come before, such as in what came to be known as the Space Wolves and Dark Angels Legions. In many cases the stamp of the Legions and the will of the Primarchs on their recruits came to largely outweigh differences of birth or blood, but in other Legions such as the Luna Wolves and the Emperor's Children, a subtle divide would grow between those veterans who had been recruited into the ranks of the Astartes by the Emperor from Terra and those who had come into the Legion from their Primarch's homeworld. This rift would be one factor among many that would lead several of the First Founding Legions towards ultimate damnation. The names of many of the Primarchs still echo down the millennia, and the tales of their deeds are legendary. Names such as Lion El'Jonson, Leman Russ, Rogal Dorn, Vulkan, Corax and the angel-winged Sanguinius are spoken of with awe on those worlds where Mankind dwells. As the Great Crusade continued the expansion of the nascent Imperium into the galaxy, the discovery of the Primarchs and their newly adopted homeworlds helped to stem an impending crisis that was not widely known of at the time outside of the exalted ranks of the Imperium's ruling War Council: namely, the diminishing stability of the gene-seed itself through over-use and the increasing need for ever greater numbers of Space Marines in the field. This was a matter that only worsened as the Great Crusade pushed ever wider afield into the galaxy. Imperial forces could no longer be concentrated as easily as before, and attrition was taking its toll as years of near-constant battle became decades. To relent the pace of the Great Crusade's progress was for the Emperor simply not an option and so the simple truth was that more Space Marines were needed and they needed to be created faster than before. A secret conclave of gene-wrights under the Emperor's direct supervision posited the solution that became known as Grabiya's Theorem, which demonstrated that a Primarch's genetic code could be used to stabilise and expand Astartes gene-seed stocks with what was hoped to be "minimal deviation." Alongside this accelerated gene-culturing technique, other previously unavailable genetic technologies were put into effect, reducing the processing time required to create a battle-worthy Space Marine to a single Terran year in some cases. Such accelerated gene-seed techniques, along with absent, inadequate or over-forceful psycho-doctrination techniques, were later found to have unseen fundamental flaws. Many Imperial savants since have come to believe that the drive to create larger Space Marine Legions at accelerated speed played a prime role in the degradation of the sanity and psychological make-up of certain Legions and paved the way for the horror that was to come. Gene-Seed: Nineteen genetically-engineered organs grown from the Legion's gene-seed are implanted in a Neophyte's body to further bolster his combat and survival ability should he live to become a full Battle-Brother and Initiate of the Legion. Many of these organs are cultured in vitro from the gene-seed, whilst others require that the gene-seed be injected into the Aspirant's body and then grow into a new organ using the implantee's own physiological processes. All Space Marine Legions use the gene-seed organs to unleash and control the metabolic processes that transform an ordinary mortal into a Space Marine. The gene-seed itself is encoded with all the genetic information needed to reshape ordinary human cell clusters into the special organs Space Marines possess in those instances where they are not directly implanted after being cultured outside the body. The gene-seed contains genetically-engineered viral machines which rebuild the male human body according to the biological template contained within it and created by the Emperor. However, even from the beginning of the Astartes' existence, there was never a set way to activate these transformative functions of the gene-seed. During the First Founding of the 30th Millennium when the Space Marine Legions were first created, the process was still highly experimental and many different ways of controlling and managing the transformation from mortal into Astartes were tried. This led to the Space Wolves using the ritual known as Blooding, the Imperial Fists using the process known as the Hand of Faith, the White Scars conducting the Rites of the Risen Moon and the Blood Angels using the ritual of Insanguination. Each implant has a high margin of catastrophic metabolic failure and physiological rejection and so only a small number of Neophytes live to become Initiates of the Legion and enter the 10th Company as Scout Marines. Many Legions have lost the knowledge needed to culture new versions of some of these implants, and therefore, must ensure this gene-seed is recovered from dead Battle-Brothers. Amongst the crucial implants are the Interface, better known as the Black Carapace, and the Progenoid Glands, without which a Legion would die out fairly quickly. The gene-seed organs must be implanted into an adolescent human male for the process to have the greatest chance of success no later than his 16th year, though it is medically possible to begin the process as late as 18 years of age before full growth has been reached in the early 20's. However, a gene-seed organ implantation procedure done at this late stage in the boy's growth will as likely kill him as not. In general, most Space Marine Legions prefer to begin the process sometime between the ages of 10 and 14 years. The full list of 19 gene-seed organs, presented in the order in which they must be implanted within a Space Marine Neophyte, is as follows: Secondary Heart (The Maintainer) - This is the first and least difficult implant to install. The Secondary Heart increases blood supply and pumping capacity and is capable of taking over entirely should the primary heart fail. It may also pump steroids and adrenaline into the first, primary heart to give the Astartes an extra "rush" of energy on the battlefield. Ossmodula (The Ironheart) - This implant strengthens and greatly accelerates the growth of the skeleton of a Space Marine by inducing his bones to absorb a ceramic-based mineral administered in every Astartes Neophyte's diet. Within two years after the surgery, the Space Marine's skeleton will be larger and exponentially stronger than a normal man's with growth having topped out at around 7-7.5 feet in height with an equivalent amount of skeleto-muscular mass. An Astartes' rib cage will also be fused into a solid bone plate to provide greater protection from injury for the internal organs. Biscopea (The Forge of Strength) - Implanted into the chest cavity, this implant massively bolsters skeletomuscular development and muscle fiber density throughout the Astartes' body by unleashing a wave of human growth hormones. This gene-seed organ is commonly implanted at the same time as the Ossmodula since it is necessary to successfully regulate the Ossmodula's hormonal secretions and it will also regulate the hormonal changes caused to the new Astartes' body by many of the other gene-seed implants. Haemastamen (The Blood Maker) - Implanted into a main blood vessel like the aorta, femoral artery or the vena cava, the Haemastamen alters an Astartes' blood's biochemical composition to carry oxygen and nutrients more efficiently. The actions of the Haemastamen turn a Space Marine's blood a brighter shade of red than that of normal humans because of its greatly increased oxygen-carrying capacity. It also acts to biochemically regulate the actions of the 2nd and 3rd gene-seed implants, the Ossmodula and Biscopea. Larraman's Organ (The Healer) - Shaped like the human liver but only the size of a golf ball, this gene-seed organ is placed within the chest cavity and manufactures the synthetic biological cells known as Larraman Cells.These biosynthetic cells serve the same physiological purpose for an Astartes as the normal human body's platelets, serving to clot the blood lost from wounds, but they act faster, more efficiently and more effectively. When a Space Marine is wounded and incurs blood loss, Larraman Cells are released by his circulatory system, attached to the body's normal leukocytes (white blood cells). At the site of the injury, they form scar tissue in a matter of seconds, effectively preventing massive blood loss and infection of the wound. The action of this organ is one of the reasons that the Space Marines are seen as nearly invincible and so difficult to kill despite the terrible wounds they sometimes endure. Catalepsean Node (The Unsleeping) - Implanted into the back of the cerebrum, this implant allows a Space Marine to avoid sleep, instead entering an almost comatose trance where their minds "recharge". It also allows one half of the brain to rest while the other hemisphere remains alert, thus removing the need for the unconsciousness required by normal sleep. The longest any Space Marine has ever been on active combat duty without rest is 328 hours, achieved by a squad of the Imperial Fists Kill-team during the battle against the Orks for Rynn's World. Preomnor (The Neutraliser) - The Preomnor is essentially an organic decontamination chamber that is implanted inside the chest cavity and connected to the digestive system, above the original stomach so that no actual digestion occurrs in the Preomnor. It is capable of biochemically analyzing ingested materials and neutralizing most known biochemical and inorganic toxins. The Preomnor enables the Astartes to eat normally inedible substances and resist any poisons he may ingest. Omophagea (The Remembrancer) - Implanted into the upper spinal cord so that it becomes a component of the central nervous system, this organ is designed to absorb information and any DNA, RNA or protein sequences related to experience or memory. This enables the Space Marine to gain information, in a survival or tactical sense, simply by eating an animal indigenous to an alien world and then experiencing some of what that creature did before its death. Over time, mutations in this implant's gene-seed have given some Legions an unnatural craving for blood or flesh. Multi-lung (The Imbiber) - The Multi-lung is a third lung implanted into an Astartes' pulmonary and circulatory systems in the chest cavity that is able to absorb oxygen from environments usually too poor in oxygen to allow normal human respiratory functioning. Breathing is accomplished through a sphincter implanted into the trachea, allowing all three lungs to be used at full capacity. In toxic environments, a similar muscle closes off the normal lungs, thus oxygen is absorbed exclusively by the Multi-lung, which then filters out the poisonous or toxic elements. Occulobe (The Eye of Vengeance) - Essentially, the Occulobe is a gene-seed organ that enhances an Astartes' eyesight after being implanted along the optic nerve and connected to the retina, granting him exceptional vision and the ability to see normally in a low-light environment. Lyman's Ear (The Sentinel) - This gene-seed organ implant renders a Space Marine immune to dizziness and motion-induced nausea, and enables an Astartes to consciously filter out "white noise" or resist other sonic attacks. Sus-an Membrane (The Hibernator) - This implant allows a Space Marine to enter a catatonic or "suspended animation" state and is implanted within the brain near the pituitary gland as a part of the body's endocrine system. It can allow a mortally wounded Astartes to survive his injuries, and bring the metabolism to a standstill until he can receive full medical care. Only the appropriate chemical therapy or hypnotic auto-suggestion can revive a Space Marine from this state. The longest recorded period for this form of hibernation was endured by Battle-Brother Silas Err of the Dark Angels Legion, who was in Sus-an hibernation for 567 standard years. Melanochrome - Linked into the endocrine system via the lymphatic system, this gene-seed organ alters the pigment cells in the skin, which allows the Astartes' skin to shield him from otherwise dangerous levels of radiation and heat. Different levels of radiation cause variations of skin color in different Legions due to mutations in the Melanochrome organ's gene-seed. This can be related to the unusually pale skin of the Blood Angels and the dark black skin and red eyes of the Salamanders. Oolitic Kidney (The Purifier) - This gene-seed organ works in conjunction with the Preomnor, filtering the blood to remove toxins that have been ingested or breathed into the body. However, this detoxification process renders the Astartes unconscious once it begins, so it can be very dangerous if required during combat. Under normal circumstances, the Oolitic Kidney also acts as a regulatory organ for the Astartes physiology, maintaining the efficient action of the Space Marine's advanced circulatory system and the proper functioning of his other organs, implanted or otherwise. Neuroglottis (The Devourer) - This gene-seed organ implanted in the mouth allows an Astartes to biochemically assess a wide variety of things simply by taste or smell, biochemically testing various objects for toxicity and nutritional content, essentially determining if the substance is edible or poisonous. From poisons to chemicals to animals, a Space Marine can even track his quarry by taste or smell alone, much like the average canine bred for tracking. Mucranoid (The Weaver) - This gene-seed organ is implanted within the central nervous system and responds to specific chemical stimuli in the environment, causing the Space Marine to secrete a waxy protein substance similar to mucus through his pores that seals his skin. The gland's operations must first be activated by an external chemical treatment, usually self-administered, before it will activate. Space Marines are cocooned in this way before they enter suspended animation, and the process can even protect them from the harshness of the vacuum and other extremes of temperature, particularly deeply frigid environments. Betcher's Gland (The Poison Bite) - Actually consisting of 2 separate glands implanted into multiple locations inside an Astartes' mouth, including the inside of the lower lip, in the salivary glands or in the hard palette, these two glands work in tandem to transform a Space Marine's saliva into a corrosive, blinding acid when consciously triggered. An Astartes trapped behind iron bars, for example, would be able to chew his way out given a few hours. These implants' more common use is to aid in the digestion of unusually difficult or impossible things to digest, such as cellulose. In the gene-seed of several Primarchs, like that of Rogal Dorn, this organ has atrophied and is no longer as effective or has simply ceased to function entirely in the Astartes of the Legions that use those Primarchs' gene-seed. Progenoid Glands (The Gene-Seeds) - Implanted into both the neck and the chest cavity, these reproductive glands serve to collect, gestate and maintain the gene-seed from a Space Marine's body, and to safeguard it for the continuity of a Legion. These organs hormonally respond to the presence of the other Astartes gene-seed implants in the body by creating germ cells with DNA identical to that of those implants through a process very similar to cellular mitosis. These germ cells grow and are stored in the Progenoid organs, much like sperm cells or egg cells are stored in the testes and ovaries of normal men and women. When properly cultured by the Apothecaries of a Space Marine Legion, these germ cells can be gestated into each of the 19 gene-seed organs needed to create a new Space Marine. Thus, for most Astartes, their Progenoid Glands represent the only form of reproduction they will ever know, though the DNA passed on will be that of their Primarch, not their own. The neck gland can be removed after 5 years, and the chest gland after 10 years; both are then used to create new gene-seed organs for the development of the next generation of Space Marines. The Black Carapace (Interface) - The last and possibly most important of all gene-seed implants, this neuroreactive, fibrous organic material is implanted directly under the skin in the chest area of the hardened and shell-like ribcage of the Astartes Neophyte. Invasive fibre bundles that serve as neuron connectors then grow inward from the implant and interlink with the Space Marine's central nervous system. Points pre-cut into the Carapace before its implantation by the Apothecary are effectively neural connection points, allowing an Astartes to directly interface his central nervous system with his suit of Power Armour's Machine Spirit so that the suit can provide enhanced protection and combat maneuverability unavailable to an unaltered human wearing the same armour. Throughout the implantation process, a Space Marine Neophyte must undergo multiple regimens of chemical and hyno-theraphy treatments in order for the implanted organs to develop normally and function properly so that they integrate without mishap into the new Astartes' physiology. Too many Neophytes have been lost during the implantation process as their bodies proved critically unable to meet the new biochemical and hormonal stress being placed upon them. For these unlucky indviduals, the only recourse is usually euthanasia or being reduced to a mindless cybernetic Servitor who can still prove to be of at least marginal use to the Legion. The full course of implantation surgeries begins under ideal conditions between the ages of 10-14 years as outlined below: Age 10-14: The Secondary Heart, Ossmodula and Biscopea are implanted, with the Ossmodula and the Biscopea usually being implanted during the same surgical procedure. Age 12-14: The Haemastamen and the Larraman's Organ are implanted. This surgery can be difficult for Neophytes at the older end of this age range, who have less time to recover from the previous surgeries and the effects of the implants upon their rapidly growing adolescent bodies. Age 14-17: Once the Catalepsean Node is implanted at the sixth stage of the process, the Neophyte begins his hypno-therapy conditioning in the device known as a Hypnomat. Age 14-16: The Preomnor, Omophagea, and Multi-lung are all implanted within the Neophyte simultaneously in the same surgical procedure, some time during this age range but after the Catalepsean Node has been implanted and hypno-therapy has already begun. The Occulobe, Lyman's Ear, and the Sus-an Membrane can also be implanted at any time during this age range, also usually during the same surgical procedure. Age 15-16: The Melanochrome, Oolitic Kidney, and Neuroglottis are ideally implanted during this age range, all during the same surgical procedure. Age 16-18: The remaining gene-seed implants, the Mucranoid, Betcher's Gland, Progenoid Glands and the Black Carapace, are implanted in that order at any time between the ages of 16 to 18 standard years. The idea is to be able to introduce a Neophyte into a Legion's company of Scout Marines by the time his adult growth has been reached, usually around 18 years of age, though some Neophytes have become Scouts as early as the age of 16 if their implantation process began at the young end of the age ranges given here.